Syyed Mansoor Agha analyses former President of India Dr. Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to the headquarters of RSS and his speech over there.
Former President of India and a lifelong comrade of the Congress Dr. Pranab Mukherjee went to Nagpur on June 7 to address the “Tritiya Varsha Sangh Shiksha Varg”, an event to mark the completion of a three-year training of RSS cadre known as Swayamsevaks. By doing so the ex-President ignored the convention to stay away from an activity bordering on politics. In accepting the invitation he has tacitly endorsed the assertion that the RSS is not a player of politics. However, critiques find a political angle in his invite. Mukherjee is a star personality of Bengal where the BJP and RSS are engaged in carving political space. His visit made big news. His visit will be seen as an endorsement and will go deep in Bengali minds to boost the morale of Saffron cadre.
Clad in typical Hindu atire (dhoti, kurta with a long vest coat), he greeted the Sangh cadre with folded hands and attracted a huge audience beyond. His address was preceded by the speech of Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of RSS, who really stole the show. He outlined the ideology, strategy, and achievements of the 98-year-old organisation. He painted a sober but equally deceitful picture. As usual, his spoken words are hard to match the ground reality. Sweet bells rang in the ears but failed to clear the smoke around the fascist tactics of the group. Before Dr. Mukherjee went there many Congressmen had expressed their apprehensions; however after the event he received appreciation.
As the eminent journalist, Shekhar Gupta puts, “Pranab Mukherjee is a Congressman at heart”, his address and glad feelings in Congressmen are therefore indicative of how hearts of Congressmen beat in unison with the RSS “Hindutva” ideology.
Before he addressed newly graduated RSS cadre, he paid floral tributes to Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, the top RSS ideologue and second Head of the organisation. He visited the birthplace of Shri Keshav Baliram Hedgewar (doctorji), the founder of RSS. He wrote there in visitor’s book: “Today I came here to pay my respect and homage to a great son of Mother India.” This speaks a lot of how he feels about RSS founder, his ideology and his legacy of hatred, violence, hurting the minorities, replacing democracy to Majoritarianism with a motive to make “India for Hindutva only.” In his last message to Swayamsevaks, in 1940 KB Hedgewar had said: “I see before my eyes today a miniature Hindu Rashtra” while addressing annual Sangh Shiksha Varg function in 1940. The “miniature Hindu Rashtra” of 1940 has since bloomed into a huge banyan tree. The Congress stalwart felt all comfortable under its shadow in 2018. Mr. Mukherjee kept standing in attention to respect Saffron flag and Sangh’s anthem. No tricolour was in sight, no national anthem was in the air. The tricolour is symbolic to the vivid cultural spectrum of India in contrast to the saffron flag of RSS which symbolises only “Hindu Nation”, where there is no room for Dalits and non-Hindu Indians.
Congress reaction to the event strengthens the belief that their concern now remains only to capture the leadership of “Hindu India”. Watch the steps of the old grand party from the day it endorsed the Two-Nation theory and read recently held assembly elections in Gujarat and Karnataka, where Congress president suddenly projected himself as a devout Hindu. Look beyond their mask of “secularism”, and evaluate their governance during the last over six decades, the motive to convert India exclusively for Hindus is well evident. Injecting slow poison into the veins of Minorities has divested them of progress and prosperity and now made them almost irrelevant in politics. In Karnataka, no Muslim face was visible in the show of unity. The slogan of “Hindu-Muslim” unity, which was the soul of our Independence movement, became redundant after Independence was achieved.
As our religion teaches, we respect every human being, ordinary or eminent. We give due space to the persons of eminence, irrespective of their caste, vision or faith. But the way Dr. Mukherjee did in case of RSS ideologues is unfortunate. Deeds make the man “great son” of his mother. Spreading venom of hatred, denying recognition to India as the home for all citizens, do not make a person, an ideology or an organisation “great”, however powerful he may have grown. Dr. Hedgewar was one who refused to accept this reality of India that is Bharat. And so was his successor MS Golwalkar.
Mr. Shamsul Islam rightly said in his open letter to Mr. Mukherjee, “I hope you still believe that for the good of India there should be unity between Hindus and Muslims but your ‘great son of Mother India’ hated it. RSS documents make it clear that Hedgewar was disillusioned with the Congress for the specific reason that it stood for unity between Hindus and Muslims. One of the official biographies of Hedgewar published by RSS says:
“It is clear that Gandhiji worked constantly with one eye on Hindu-Muslim unity… But Doctorji sensed danger in that move. In fact, he did not even relish the new-fangled slogan of ‘Hindu-Muslim Unity’.” [ H. V. Seshadri (ed.), Dr. Hedgewar, the Epoch-Maker: A Biography, 61]
Hedgewar never hid out that he hated the idea of Hindu–Muslim unity. While returning from Akola after the Hindu Mahasabha sammelan (presided over by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar) in 1937, when he was asked why he left the Congress, Hedgewar’s answer was, “because Congress believes in Hindu–Muslim unity”. [H.V. Pingle (ed.), Smritikan: Param Pujiye Dr. Hedgewar Ke Jeewan Kee Vibhin Gahtnaon Ka Sankalan [a collection of incidents in the life of Dr. Hedgewar; (Nagpur: RSS Prakashan Vibhag, 1962].
Another biography mentions, “Once on a Friday, musicians while passing in front of the gate of a mosque stopped playing music. Then Doctorji himself snatched the drum, hanged it on his neck and played it. Only then the playing of music could start outside the mosque.” [H.V. Pingle (ed.), Smritikan: Param Pujiye Dr. Hedgewar Ke Jeewan Kee Vibhin Ghatnaon Ka Sankalan (a collection of incidents in the life of Dr. Hedgewar), 31–32.]
Dr. Mukherjee, these are only few attributes of the person you praised as “the great son of India”. His contributions to the nation are hounding the unity, fraternity and tolerance among Indians. Daily lynching of Dalits and Muslims and anti-Minority riots for political gains are all branches of the same tree.
Dr. Mukherjee started his address with the quest of “the concepts of Nation, Nationalism, and Patriotism in the context of India, that is Bharat.” In his pursuit to trace the emergence of “India as a nation”, he traversed the history of the sub-continent back from the “sixteen Mahajanapadas” of the 6th century BC.” He briefly referred to the periods of Maurya and Gupta Dynasties, till around 550 C.E. When he came to the Muslim period he forgot their contribution in various fields of life. It is shocking that Dr. Mukherjee blatantly incorporated Sangh’s oft-repeated phrase of “Muslim invaders”, used as a handle to spread hatred against Muslims.
Please remember, the period when horse-mounted Arab, Turk and Mongol conquerors entered this land from the west, no nation-state existed here with defined boundaries. That was the period when musclemen used to grab territories and rule. Their rivalries kept them engaged in armed conflicts, they snatched the territories from others and the borders always kept changing. Likewise, Muslims came here to rule. Barring one or two, all made this land their home like Aryans did. They provided better rule than native rulers did and united vast territories in one. Dr. Mukherjee rightly said, “In fact, each conqueror and each foreign element had been absorbed to form a new synthesis and unity.”
This may further be underlined that the concepts of Nation, Nation-state, and Nationalism emerged in Europe after the 15th century. Many Muslim rulers united India from Kashmir to Aurangabad and beyond. The credit to bring India under one administration, by and large, goes to British and then the government of Independent India. The concept of Modern Indian State emerged here only in 1895 otherwise every citizen had allegiance only to the ruler and not to the state ruled.
As Dr. Mukherjee mentioned, Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s call for “Swaraj” for the Indian People – encompassing various castes, creeds and religions, spread across British India, and the Princely States. This Nation and Nationalism was not bound by geography, language, religion, or race. As Gandhiji explained, Indian nationalism was not exclusive, nor aggressive, nor destructive. It was this Nationalism that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru so vividly expressed in The Discovery of India, and I quote, “I am convinced that Nationalism can only come out of the ideological fusion of Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and other groups in India. That does not mean that extinction of any real culture of any group.”
Dr. Mukhejee reminded, “In the process of our movement against British Rule, the various anti-colonial, anti-British and mostly progressive movements across the length and breadth of the country were unified into a cohesive national struggle for freedom, keeping the feeling of patriotism above their individual, ideological and political leanings.” It may be mentioned that RSS was not among them who got united for the freedom of India. The question is, whether the people opposed to this very idea of Nation (for all) and Nationalism, instead of wanting to destroy people of other faiths and inhale all other cultures into one undefined “Hindu” culture, are true friends of great India or diametrically opposed to it?
Dialogue is of course a great idea. But the platform Dr. Mukherjee chose proved otherwise. RSS successfully used Dr. Mukherjee to touch the Hindu heart in Bengal but will not learn a lesson from Pranabda’s sermon on pluralism, tolerance and secularism. Mr. Bhagwat made it clear in the very beginning that guests come and see what the nature of the RSS is. He added as if to say that it makes no difference what the guests say, “RSS is RSS, Dr. Pranab Mukherjee is Dr. Pranab Mukherjee”.
I conclude with a quote from by Suhas Palshikar’s article “Two speeches, a spectacle” (IE 9 June) : “The RSS chief’s speech was a remarkable instance of doublespeak, not only for his seeming espousal of diversity but also for his claim that the RSS was working for the whole society — implying that it is not a Hindu organisation. But he later went on to approvingly refer to K B Hedgewar and said that Hindus are answerable to questions about India’s fortunes, they hold the responsibility for India (Hindu Samaj Bharat ka uttardayi hai… Bharat ke bhagya ke bare mein usse hi prashn poochhe jayenge). Pray, where does that leave the non-Hindus?”
[The writer is a senior Journalist and Civil Rights Activist. email: [email protected]]